Electronic device, method therein and computer-readable storage medium

ABSTRACT

Provided are an electronic device, a method therein and a computer-readable storage medium. The electronic device comprises a processing circuit configured to: receive spectrum usage statistical information from at least one spectrum management sub-device, the spectrum usage statistical information comprising spectrum usage related information and interference related information of a subsystem managed by the spectrum management sub-device; and generate, on the basis of the spectrum usage statistical information from the at least one spectrum management sub-device in an off-line state, spectrum usage guidance information of the subsystem managed by each spectrum management sub-device. Even when part of spectrum management devices cannot communicate with other spectrum management devices in real time, spectrum usage statistical information can still be obtained; and on this basis, guidance information is given for the spectrum usage of sub-systems so as to coordinate the spectrum usage of the sub-systems.

The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent ApplicationNo. 202010217755.2, titled “ELECTRONIC DEVICE, METHOD THEREIN ANDCOMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM”, filed on Mar. 25, 2020 with the ChinaNational Intellectual Property Administration, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of wirelesscommunications, and in particular to an electronic device capable ofgiving guidance on spectrum resource usage, a method in the electronicdevice, and a computer-readable storage medium.

BACKGROUND

With the development of wireless communication systems, users haveincreasingly high service demands for high-quality, high-speed, and newservices. Wireless communication operators and device manufacturers haveto continuously improve the system to meet the demands of users. Thisrequires a large amount of spectrum resources (which may be quantifiedas parameters such as time, frequency, bandwidth, maximum allowabletransmit power) to support new services and meet high-speedcommunication demands. Limited spectrum resources have been allocated tofixed operators and services, and newly available spectrum is scarce orexpensive. In this case, the concept of dynamic spectrum utilization isproposed, that is, the spectrum resources that have been allocated tosome services but are not fully utilized are dynamically utilized. Forexample, the frequency spectrum of some channels that do not broadcastprograms or the frequency spectrum of adjacent channels on the digitaltelevision broadcast spectrum is dynamically utilized to performwireless mobile communication without interfering with the reception ofa television signal.

In this application example, since the television broadcast spectrum isallocated for utilization by the television broadcast system, thetelevision broadcast system is called a primary system, and thetelevision set is called a primary user. A mobile communication systemthat utilizes the television broadcast spectrum without interfering withreception of the television signal is referred to as a secondary system,and a receiver in the mobile communication system is referred to as asecondary user. Here, the primary system may refer to a system havingaccess to a spectrum, for example, the television broadcast system. Thesecondary system is a system that has no access to the spectrum and onlyproperly utilizes the spectrum when the primary system does not utilizethe spectrum, for example, a mobile communication system. In addition,the primary system and the secondary system may both have access to thespectrum, and have different priorities. The primary system may have ahigher priority for spectrum usage than the secondary system. Forexample, when an operator deploys a new base station to provide a newservice, the existing base station and the service it provides havepriority in spectrum usage. In this case, the existing base station isregarded as the primary system, and the new base station is regarded asthe secondary system. The primary system includes a primary base stationand a primary user. The secondary system includes a secondary basestation and a secondary user.

The secondary systems access the spectrum under the management of aspectrum management device to ensure that the secondary systems do notinterfere with the primary system and do not interfere with each other.However, when multiple spectrum management devices operateindependently, for example, when some spectrum management devices aredeployed on a local computer and do not communicate with other spectrummanagement device in real time, such spectrum management device onlyincludes spectrum usage related information of the secondary system itmanages. Spectrum usage by secondary systems managed by differentspectrum management devices cannot be coordinated, resulting in conflictor interference.

SUMMARY

A brief summary of the present disclosure is described above in order toprovide a basic understanding of certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. It should be understood, however, that this summary is notan exhaustive overview of the present disclosure. This summary isneither intended to identify critical or essential parts of the presentdisclosure nor to limit the scope of the present disclosure. The onlypurpose of this summary is to present some concepts related to thepresent disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the moredetailed description that is presented later.

In view of the above problems, an object of at least one aspect of thepresent disclosure is to provide an electronic device, a method in theelectronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium. Therefore,even in a case that some spectrum management devices do not communicatewith other spectrum management devices in real time, the spectrum usagestatistical information of secondary systems managed by the spectrummanagement devices can be obtained respectively from the spectrummanagement devices. Guidance is given to the spectrum usage of thesecondary systems based on this information to coordinate the spectrumusage of the secondary systems.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device including processing circuitry configured to: receivespectrum usage statistical information from at least one sub-spectrummanagement device, the spectrum usage statistical information including:spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device, and interference related information ofthe secondary system managed by the sub-spectrum management device; andgenerate, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from theat least one sub-spectrum management device, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device, where the at least one sub-spectrum management deviceis in an offline state.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is providedan electronic device including processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage statistical information, the spectrum usagestatistical information including: spectrum usage related information ofa secondary system managed by said electronic device, and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by said electronicdevice; send the acquired spectrum usage statistical information to acentral spectrum device for the central spectrum device to generate,based on spectrum usage statistical information from at least one of theelectronic devices in an offline state, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each said electronicdevice.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is providedan electronic device including processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage related information of a secondary system wherethe electronic device is located; send the acquired spectrum usagerelated information to a sub-spectrum management device that manages thesecondary system, for the sub-spectrum management device to send thespectrum usage related information and interference related informationof the secondary system to a central spectrum device as spectrum usagestatistical information, so that the central spectrum device generates,based on the spectrum usage statistical information from the at leastone sub-spectrum management device, spectrum usage guidance informationfor a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device,where the at least one sub-spectrum management device is in an offlinestate.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is providedan electronic device including processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage statistical information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device, where the spectrum usage statisticalinformation includes spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem managed by the electronic device and interference relatedinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device;receive spectrum usage statistical information from other saidelectronic devices, where at least one of said other electronic devicesis in an offline state; and generate, based on the acquired spectrumusage statistical information and the received spectrum usagestatistical information, spectrum usage guidance information for thesecondary system managed by the electronic device.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is providedan electronic device including processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage related information of the secondary system inwhich the electronic device is located; and send the acquired spectrumusage related information to a spectrum management device managing thesecondary system, for the spectrum management device to generatespectrum usage guidance information for the secondary system based onspectrum usage statistical information including the spectrum usagerelated information and interference related information of thesecondary system as well as spectrum usage statistical information fromother spectrum management devices, where the at least one of the otherspectrum management devices is in an offline state.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in anelectronic device is also provided. The method includes: receivingspectrum usage statistical information from at least one sub-spectrummanagement device, the spectrum usage statistical information including:spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device, and interference related information ofthe secondary system managed by the sub-spectrum management device; andgenerating, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from theat least one sub-spectrum management device, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device, where the at least one sub-spectrum management deviceis in an offline state.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in anelectronic device is also provided. The method includes: acquiringspectrum usage statistical information, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including: spectrum usage related information of a secondarysystem managed by said electronic device and interference relatedinformation of the secondary system managed by said electronic device;sending the acquired spectrum usage statistical information to a centralspectrum device for the central spectrum device to generate, based onspectrum usage statistical information from at least one of theelectronic devices in an offline state, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each said electronicdevice.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in anelectronic device is also provided. The method includes: acquiringspectrum usage statistical information of a secondary system managed bythe electronic device, where the spectrum usage statistical informationincludes spectrum usage related information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device and interference related information ofthe secondary system managed by the electronic device; receivingspectrum usage statistical information from other said electronicdevices, where at least one of said other electronic devices is in anoffline state; and generating, based on the acquired spectrum usagestatistical information and the received spectrum usage statisticalinformation, spectrum usage guidance information for the secondarysystem managed by the electronic device.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is alsoprovided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium havingexecutable instructions stored thereon. The executable instructions,when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform variousfunctions of the above-described electronic device or method in theelectronic device.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, there are alsoprovided computer program codes and computer program products forimplementing the methods according to the present disclosure.

According to at least one aspect of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, even in a case that some spectrum management devices cannotcommunicate with other spectrum management devices in real time, thespectrum usage statistical information of secondary systems managed bythe spectrum management devices can be obtained respectively from thespectrum management devices. Guidance is given to the spectrum usage ofthe secondary systems based on this information to coordinate thespectrum usage of the secondary systems.

Additional aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are setforth in the description below. The detailed description is to fullydisclose the preferred embodiments of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure without imposing limitations thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustrating selected embodimentsonly rather than all possible implementations, and are not intended tolimit the scope of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of anelectronic device on a side of a central spectrum device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of ageneration unit in an electronic device on a side of a central spectrumdevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a first configuration example ofan electronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a second configuration example ofan electronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an informationexchange process of centralized spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example applicationscenario of the centralized spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a first configuration example ofan electronic device that may be utilized for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a second configuration example ofan electronic device that may be utilized for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an informationexchange process of the distributed spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method in anelectronic device on a side of a central spectrum device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method in anelectronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method thatmay be utilized in an electronic device for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a server to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied; and

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an exemplary structure of ageneral-purpose personal computer in which methods and/or devices and/orsystems according to embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented.

Although the present disclosure is susceptible to various modificationsand alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown byway of examples in the drawings and are described in detail herein. Itshould be understood, however, that the description of specificembodiments herein is not intended to limit the present disclosure tothe precise forms disclosed. Instead, the purpose of the presentdisclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents and substitutionsfalling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. It shouldbe noted that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numeralsindicate corresponding parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of the present disclosure are to be described more fully withreference to the drawings. The following description is merelyillustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the disclosure,application, or usages.

Example embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure becomesthorough, and the scope can be fully conveyed to those skilled in theart. Numerous specific details such as examples of specific components,devices, and methods are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It is apparentto those skilled in the art that example embodiments may be embodied inmany different forms without the specific details, and that neithershould be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Insome example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known structuresand well-known technologies are not described in detail.

Description is made in the following order:

-   -   1. Description of problems;    -   2. Configuration example of an electronic device for centralized        spectrum management        -   2.1 Configuration example of an electronic device on a side            of a central spectrum device            -   2.1.1 One configuration example of an electronic device                on a side of a central spectrum device            -   2.1.2 Configuration example of a generation unit of an                electronic device on a side of a central spectrum device        -   2.2 Configuration example of an electronic device on a side            of a sub-spectrum management device side            -   2.2.1 First configuration example of the electronic                device on the side of the sub-spectrum management device            -   2.2.2 Second configuration example of the electronic                device on the side of the sub-spectrum management device        -   2.3 Example of information exchange process for centralized            spectrum management        -   2.4 Example application scenario for centralized spectrum            management mode    -   3. Configuration example of an electronic device involved in        distributed spectrum management        -   3.1 First configuration example of an electronic device that            may be utilized for distributed spectrum management        -   3.2 Second configuration example of an electronic device            that may be utilized for distributed spectrum management        -   3.3 Example of information exchange process for distributed            spectrum management    -   4. Example of an electronic device on a side of a base station        in a secondary system    -   5. Method Embodiments        -   5.1 Method embodiments on a side of a central spectrum            device        -   5.2 Method embodiments on a side of a sub-spectrum            management device        -   5.3 Method embodiments in a distributed spectrum management            mode    -   6. Application Examples

1. Description of the Problem

The secondary system utilizes an idle spectrum of a primary system underthe management of a spectrum management device to ensure that thesecondary system does not interfere with the primary system and does notinterfere with each other. In a case that multiple spectrum managementdevices perform spectrum management on different secondary systems andthese spectrum management devices operate as sub-spectrum managementdevices in the a centralized spectrum management mode, a centralspectrum device is expected to acquire registration information,spectrum usage related information and primary system information of allsecondary systems of these (sub) spectrum management devices in realtime, in order to perform calculation based on this information for eachspectrum management device to control the managed secondary systemsbased on the calculation result. In addition, if multiple spectrummanagement devices perform distributed spectrum management, it isexpected that the above information may be exchanged between thesespectrum management devices in real time, so that each spectrummanagement device can perform calculation according to the samealgorithm based on the information and control the managed secondarysystems according to the calculation result.

However, in practice, there are the following application scenarios:some spectrum management devices are pre-installed with the informationof the geographic location database and deployed locally (for example, alocal server or a local computer), only communicate with a centralspectrum device/other distributed spectrum management devices deployedon a cloud platform at a specific time (for example, at the updatetiming determined by the update cycle, or when the network isaccessible), and are in an offline state where it is impossible tocommunicate with the central spectrum device/other distributed spectrummanagement devices in real time (hereinafter, this state is alsoreferred to as “offline state” for short when appropriate) in other timethan the specific time. Such a spectrum management device has onlyspectrum usage related information of the secondary systems it managesin an offline state, resulting in uncoordinated spectrum usage amongsecondary systems managed by different spectrum management devices,thereby interfering with each other.

Therefore, for the case where some spectrum management devices do nocommunicate with other spectrum management devices in real time, it isdesirable to acquire spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystems managed by each spectrum management device in an appropriatemanner, and coordinate the spectrum usage of the secondary systems basedon such information.

In view of such a case, an electronic device capable of realizing aspectrum management function, a method in the electronic device, anelectronic device on the base station side in the secondary system, anda computer-readable storage medium are provided according to the presentdisclosure. Therefore, even in a case that some spectrum managementdevices do not communicate with other spectrum management devices inreal time, the spectrum usage statistical information of secondarysystems managed by the spectrum management devices can be obtainedrespectively from the spectrum management devices. Guidance is given tothe spectrum usage of the secondary systems based on this information tocoordinate the spectrum usage of the secondary systems.

The electronic device capable of implementing the functions of thespectrum management device according to the present disclosure may beimplemented as any type of server, such as a tower server, a rackserver, and a blade server. The electronic device may be a controlmodule (such as integrated circuitry module including a single die, anda card or blade that is inserted into a slot in a blade server) mountedon a server. In addition, at least part of the functions of theelectronic device may be realized by a personal computer or the likepreinstalled with a program.

The electronic device on the base station side in the secondary systemaccording to the present disclosure may be implemented as any type ofTRP (Transmit and Receive Port). The TRP may have sending and receivingfunctions, for example, may receive information from user equipment anda base station device, and may also send information to the userequipment and base station device. In an example, the TRP may serve theuser equipment and be controlled by the base station device. Further,the TRP may have a structure similar to the following base stationdevice, or may only have the structure related to sending and receivinginformation in the base station device.

In addition, the electronic device on the base station side in thesecondary system may also be implemented as any type of base stationdevice, for example, an eNB (evolved node B) or a gNB. In some specificembodiments or examples below, the base station device may be directlydescribed as an example of the electronic device on the base stationside of the secondary system. However, the present disclosure is notlimited to this, but may be appropriately applied to the case of anelectronic device implemented with TRP.

2. Configuration Example of an Electronic Device Involved in CentralizedSpectrum Management 2.1 Configuration Example of an Electronic Device ona Side of a Central Spectrum Device 2.1.1 One Configuration Example ofan Electronic Device on a Side of a Central Spectrum Device

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of anelectronic device on a side of a central spectrum device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the electronic device 100 may include acommunication unit 110 and a generation unit 120.

Here, each unit of the electronic device 100 may be included inprocessing circuitry. It should be noted that the electronic device 100may include either one processing circuitry or multiple processingcircuitry. Further, the processing circuitry may include variousdiscrete functional units to perform various different functions and/oroperations. It should be noted that these functional units may bephysical entities or logical entities, and units with different namesmay be implemented by the same physical entity.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communicationunit 110 may receive spectrum usage statistical information from atleast one sub-spectrum management device. The spectrum usage statisticalinformation includes: spectrum usage related information of a secondarysystem managed by the sub-spectrum management device and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by the sub-spectrummanagement device. The generation unit 120 may generate spectrum usageguidance information for the secondary system managed by eachsub-spectrum management device based on the spectrum usage statisticalinformation respectively from the at least one sub-spectrum managementdevice. The at least one sub-spectrum management device is in an offlinestate. For example, the offline state here may indicate a state of notcommunicating with the electronic device 100 in real time.

The spectrum usage statistical information received by the communicationunit 110 from the at least one sub-spectrum management device may not beacquired by the sub-spectrum management device in real time. Forexample, the sub-spectrum management device may be pre-installed withthe information of the geographic location database and deployed locally(such as a local server or local computer), and may acquire the spectrumusage statistical information of the managed secondary system in anoffline state, but fails to send the spectrum usage statisticalinformation in real time to the electronic device 100. Instead, thesub-spectrum management device waits to be online before sending. Suchsub-spectrum management device may send the spectrum statisticalinformation periodically (for example, according to a pre-configuredperiod) or aperiodically (for example, when switching from an offlinestate to an online state).

The spectrum usage statistical information received by the communicationunit 110 includes spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem managed by the sub-spectrum management device and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by the sub-spectrummanagement device. For example, the spectrum usage related informationof the secondary system may be acquired by the sub-spectrum managementdevice according to the historical information about spectrum usagesaved by the sub-spectrum management device. This is because thesub-spectrum management device manages the spectrum usage of thesecondary system, and the historical information stored by thesub-spectrum management device indicates the spectrum usage of thesecondary system. Alternatively, the spectrum usage related informationof the secondary system may be acquired from the secondary system (thatis, the base station of the secondary system) by the sub-spectrummanagement device. For example, the interference related information ofthe secondary system may be obtained by measuring the interferencesuffered by the secondary system. This measurement may be performedunder the control of the sub-spectrum management device. Preferably, theinterference related information of the secondary system in the spectrumusage statistical information received by the communication unitindicates the interference suffered by the secondary system determinedby measurement.

Based on the spectrum usage statistical information acquired by thecommunication unit 110 from the multiple sub-spectrum managementdevices, the generation unit 120 statistically understands the spectrumusage and the interference conditions of the secondary systems managedby the respective sub-spectrum management devices, and generate spectrumusage guidance information accordingly.

For example, the electronic device 100 acquires spectrum usagestatistical information from three sub-spectrum management devices A, B,and C. The communication unit 110 of the electronic device 100 mayperiodically acquire spectrum usage statistical information from thedevice A that is in an offline state, and may acquire spectrum usagestatistical information in real time or periodically from the device Band the device C that are always online. For example, after thecommunication unit 110 periodically acquires the above information, thegeneration unit 120 may compare the interference related information ofthe secondary system in the spectrum usage statistical information ofthe sub-spectrum management device A with the spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system in the spectrum usage statisticalinformation of the sub-spectrum management devices B and C; determinethat the interference suffered by the secondary system managed by thedevice A is from the spectrum usage of the secondary systems managed bythe device B or C in a case of overlapping; and generate the spectrumusage guidance information to instruct to modify the spectrum usage ofthe secondary systems managed by the device B or C so as to avoidinterference. In addition, the generation unit 120 may, for example,compare the spectrum usage related information of the secondary systemin the spectrum usage statistical information of the sub-spectrummanagement devices A, B, and C, for example, compares the times orfrequencies of spectrum usage of the secondary systems managed by thedevices A, B, and C, respectively; and generates spectrum usage guidanceinformation instructing these secondary systems to perform moreprioritized spectrum usage when the secondary systems managed by thedevice A have longer spectrum usage or more frequent spectrum usage.

The communication unit 110 may send the spectrum usage guidanceinformation generated by the generation unit 120 to the sub-spectrummanagement device periodically (for example, according to apre-configured period) or aperiodically (for example, when thesub-spectrum management device switches from an offline state to anonline state), for the sub-spectrum management device to determine thespectrum usage of the secondary system.

In this way, even in the case where some sub-spectrum management devicesdo not communicate with the central spectrum device in real time, theelectronic device 100 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure can acquire spectrum usage statistical information of thesecondary systems managed by each sub-spectrum management device fromthe sub-spectrum management device. This information is considered in anoverall manner to give appropriate guidance on the spectrum usage of thesecondary systems, which in turn facilitates the coordination of thespectrum usage of the secondary systems.

The basic configuration of the configuration example of the electronicdevice on the side of the central spectrum device according to theembodiment of the present disclosure has been described above withreference to FIG. 1 .

2.1.2 Configuration Example of a Generation Unit of an Electronic Deviceon a Side of a Central Spectrum Device

In a preferred embodiment of an electronic device such as that shown inFIG. 1 on the side of the central spectrum device, in the spectrum usagestatistical information received by the communication unit, the spectrumusage related information of the secondary system may indicate an area,a frequency band and a time of spectrum usage of the secondary system,and the interference related information of the secondary system mayindicate an area, a frequency band and a time of interference sufferedby the secondary system. For example, the spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system may include a geographic location, acoverage, as well as a time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of abase station in the secondary system. Accordingly, in a preferredexample, the generation unit of the electronic device may generateappropriate spectrum usage guidance information based on such spectrumusage statistical information. Next, one configuration example of ageneration unit capable of realizing such processing is described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of ageneration unit in an electronic device on a side of a central spectrumdevice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Thegeneration unit 220 shown in FIG. 2 is a configuration example of thegeneration unit 120 of the electronic device 100 in FIG. 1 based on theabove preferred embodiment. The following description thereforecontinues on the basis of FIG. 1 and the preferred embodiment describedabove.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the generation unit 220 includes an integrationsubunit 2210 and a generation subunit 2220.

The integration subunit 2210 may determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band based on thespectrum usage statistical information from the multiple sub-spectrummanagement devices. More specifically, the integration subunit may beconfigured to: exclude, based on spectrum usage statistical informationfrom the multiple sub-spectrum management devices, from interferencesuffered by a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum managementdevice, a portion whose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by another sub-spectrum management device, and determine aresult of the excluding as interference from unknown sources suffered bythe secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device; andaccumulate, with respect to all the determined interference from unknownsources, times of respective interference from unknown sources in termsof an area and an frequency band, to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.

Optionally, the integration in unit 2210 is further configured toaccumulate, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from themultiple sub-spectrum management devices, for each sub-spectrummanagement device, a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by that sub-spectrum management device in terms of an area, todetermine spectrum usage integration information associated with thearea.

The generation subunit 2220 may generate, based on the interferenceintegration information acquired by the integration subunit 2210 andoptionally in combination with the spectrum usage integrationinformation acquired by the integration subunit 2210, frequency bandrecommendation information associated with the area for the secondarysystem managed by each sub-spectrum management device, as the spectrumusage guidance information.

An embodiment of the processing performed by the integration subunit2210 and the generation subunit 2220 is described below with referenceto a specific example. Here, as an example of multiple sub-spectrummanagement devices, sub-spectrum management devices A, B, and Crespectively manage secondary systems {a₁, a₂, . . . , a_(m)}, . . . ,{c₁, c₂ . . . , c_(k)}. a₁, a₂, . . . a_(m), b₁, b₂ . . . b_(n), c₁, c₂,. . . , c_(k) represent the secondary systems managed by thesub-spectrum management devices A, B, and C, respectively. m, n, and kare the total number of secondary systems managed by the sub-spectrummanagement devices A, B, and C, respectively. At least the sub-spectrummanagement device A is an offline state of not communicating with theelectronic device on the side of the central spectrum device in realtime.

In this example, the spectrum usage statistical information of thesecondary system received from each sub-spectrum management device bythe communication unit 110 of the electronic device 100 such as shown inFIG. 1 may include two lists. The first list List1 indicates spectrumusage related information of each secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device. The second list List2 indicates theinterference related information of each secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device.

For the sub-spectrum management device A, an item in the first listList1 _(A) indicating spectrum usage related information may correspondto the usage of a frequency band in an area by a secondary systemmanaged by the sub-spectrum management device A, and the form may be,for example, (a serial number of the sub-spectrum management device, aserial number of the secondary system, an area, a frequency band,duration from start to end of the spectrum usage). If the spectrum usageof a secondary system, for example, a secondary system a₁, involvesmultiple areas and/or multiple frequency bands, there may have multipleitems in the first list List1 _(A). Here, the area may be, for example,a serial number of a geographic grid obtained by the sub-spectrummanagement deice A dividing the geographic area covered by themanagement of the sub-spectrum management device A (for example, thegeographic area corresponding to a geographic location databasepre-installed in the sub-spectrum management device A) according to thepre-configuration of the electronic device serving as the centralspectrum device. Alternatively, the area may also be indicated by theactual geographic location information of the geographic grid to whichthe spectrum usage corresponds.

Optionally, as a variant, an item in the first list List1 _(A) of thesub-spectrum management device A indicating spectrum usage relatedinformation may indicate the spectrum usage of a base station of one ofits secondary systems, and the form may be, for example, (a serialnumber of the sub-spectrum management device, a serial number of thesecondary system, a serial number of the base station, a geographiclocation of the base station, a coverage of the base station, afrequency band, and duration from start to end of the spectrum usage).In this case, the integration subunit 2210 of the electronic device onthe side of the central spectrum device may determine the correspondingarea according to the geographic location of the base station and thecoverage of the base station in the item, and converts all items for thebase station individually or collectively into the form of the items forthe secondary system described above (a serial number of thesub-spectrum management device, a serial number of the secondary system,an area, a frequency band, and duration from start to end of spectrumusage).

An item in the second list List2 _(A) of the spectrum management deviceA indicating the interference related information may correspond to theinterference of a frequency band in an area of the secondary systemmanaged by the sub-spectrum management device A, the form may be, forexample, (a serial number of the sub-spectrum management device, aserial number of interference, an area, a frequency band, duration fromstart to end of the interference), and may optionally includeinterference strength. The area here may also be the serial number ofthe geographic grid obtained by dividing the geographic area by thesub-spectrum management device according to the predetermined rules.Alternatively, the area may also be indicated by the actual geographiclocation information of the geographic grid to which the interferencecorresponds.

Similarly, the spectrum usage statistical information of the secondarysystems managed by the sub-spectrum management device B and C receivedform the sub-spectrum management device B and C may include first andsecond lists List1 _(B) and List2 _(B) and first and second lists Listicand List2 _(C), respectively.

The integration subunit 2210 may integrate the first lists Listic toListic indicating spectrum usage related information, thereby obtaininga first general table LIST1 including spectrum usage related informationof all secondary systems. Each item in LIST1 corresponds to one itemfrom one of Listic to Listic.

In addition, the integration subunit 2210 may summarize and integratethe second lists List2 _(A) to List2 _(C) indicating spectrum usagerelated information, so as to obtain a second overall list LIST2indicating the interference suffered by all secondary systems. Here, ina case that an item in the second lists List2 _(A) to List2 _(C)indicates repeated interference, the item deleted without beingaggregated to the second general table LIST2. For example, assuming thatan item in the second list List2 _(A) has exactly the same “area”,“frequency band” and “duration from start to end of the interference” asan item in the second list List2 _(B), the two items come from the sameinterference source, and therefore only one of the two items is storedin the second summary table LIST2.

Further, based on the first general table LIST1 and the second generaltable LIST2, the integration subunit 2210 excludes the interference inthe second general table LIST2 caused by the spectrum usage in the firstgeneral table LIST1 by comparing respective items in the first generaltable LIST1 and the second general table LIST2, so as to determine allthe interference from unknown sources except the interference caused bythe secondary systems managed by each sub-spectrum management device,and acquires a list of interference from unknown sources LIST0.

In an example, in a preferred embodiment, the integration subunit 2210performs the following exclusion processing based on the first generaltables LIST1 and LIST2: removing an interference item in the secondgeneral table LIST2 for indicating interference, in a case that “anarea”, “a frequency band”, “duration from start to end of theinterference” in the interference item overlap “an area”, “a frequencyband”, and “duration from start to end of the interference” in aspectrum usage item in the first general table LIST1 for indicatingspectrum usage; and in a case that “area”, “frequency band”, “durationfrom start to end of the interference” in the interference item partlyoverlap “area”, “frequency band”, and “duration from start to end of thespectrum usage” in a spectrum usage item in the first general tableLIST1 for indicating spectrum usage respectively, removing a part thatoverlaps a corresponding part in the spectrum usage item from each ofthe “area”, “frequency band”, “duration from start to end of theinterference” in the interference item. After such exclusion processing,a list LIST0 representing interference from all unknown sources isobtained. The form of each item is identical to that in the secondgeneral list LIST2, that is, the second list List2, and including (aserial number of the sub-spectrum management device, a serial number ofthe interference, an area, a frequency band, and duration from start toend of the interference), and may optionally include interferencestrength.

The integration subunit 2210 may accumulate the time of thecorresponding interference form unknown source in terms of the area andthe frequency band based on the list LIST0 indicating interference fromall unknown sources, so as to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.

In an example, the integration subunit 2210 may calculate interferenceintegration information in the form of interference probabilityassociated with areas and frequency bands. In this case, the integrationsubunit 2210 may count all the interferences that occur for all theitems in the list LIST0 according to the combination of (“area” plus“band”), and accumulate the time of the corresponding interference fromunknown source. For example, t items in the list LIST0 relate to a givenarea Areal and frequency band CH1, and the “duration form start to endof interference” in each of the t items us accumulated to obtain theaccumulated duration after the repetition period is removed. Theaccumulated time period may be divided by a preset measurement periodfor interference measurement (for example, 24 hours) to obtain theinterference probability of the frequency band CH1 in the given areaAreal. In this way, the interference probability of a frequency band CH1in a given area is 0.1/24=0.04%, the interference probability of afrequency band CH2 in the given area is 2.1/24=0.09%, and so on. In thisway, the interference probability for each frequency band within thearea can be calculated.

Optionally, in a case that each item in the list LIST0 further includesthe interference intensity, the integration subunit 2210 considers onlyan interference item whose interference intensity exceeds apredetermined intensity threshold and excludes an item whoseinterference intensity is relatively low when calculating theinterference probability, which is not described in detail herein.

Based on the interference integration information in the form of theinterference probability obtained by the integration subunit 2210, thegeneration subunit 2220 may generate the frequency band recommendationinformation associated with the area for the secondary system managed byeach sub-spectrum management device, as the spectrum usage guidanceinformation. For example, the frequency band recommendation informationmay include recommended frequency bands arranged in order of priority.For example, the frequency band recommendation information may include alist of frequency bands ordered from low to high interferenceprobability for each area, such as {CH1, CH2, CH3, CH4, . . . CHL} forthe given area Areal. Alternatively, the frequency band recommendationinformation may only include a list of frequency bands in each areawhose interference probability is lower than the predeterminedinterference probability threshold, such as only {CH1, CH2, CH3, CH4}for the given area Areal. Each sub-spectrum management device maydetermine the spectrum usage of the secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device based on such frequency bandrecommendation information associated with the area.

In this way, the configuration example of the generation unit shown inFIG. 2 can determine the interference from unknown sources other thanthe interference caused by the secondary system managed by eachsub-spectrum management device, and provides appropriate guidance to thespectrum usage of the secondary system according to such interference,so that the secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum managementdevice can be protected from unknown interference.

In addition, optionally, in a further preferred embodiment of thegeneration unit, the integration subunit 2210 may further determine, foreach sub-spectrum management device, determine spectrum usageintegration information associated with area based on spectrum usagestatistical information from the multiple sub-spectrum managementdevices, respectively. For example, the integration subunit 2210 mayaccumulate, based on the first list List1 indicating spectrum usagerelated information in the spectrum usage statistical information fromeach sub-spectrum management device, duration of spectrum usage of allthe secondary systems managed by the sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to the area, determine the probability of spectrum usageassociated with the area for the sub-spectrum management device (alsoreferred to as an activation probability associated with thesub-spectrum management device) in a manner similar to determining theinterference probability, and determine the activation probabilityassociated with the sub-spectrum management device as the spectrum usageintegration information.

More specifically, in an example, taking the sub-spectrum managementdevice A as an example, the integration subunit 2210 may count thespectrum usage that occurs in units of “areas” for all the items in thefirst list List1 _(A). For example, if s items in the list List1 _(A)relate to the given area Areal, the respective “duration form start toend of the spectrum usage” in the s items are accumulated to obtain theaccumulated duration after removing the repetition time. The accumulatedduration may be divided by a preset statistical period for spectrumusage (for example, 24 hours) to obtain the activation probability ofall secondary systems managed by the sub-spectrum management device A inthe given area Areal, for example, 20/24=83%. Similarly, for example,the activation probability of a sub-spectrum management device B in thegiven area Areal is obtained as 50%, and the activation probability of asub-spectrum management device C in the given area Areal obtained as20%. In this way, for each area, the activation probability of eachsub-spectrum management device within the area can be calculated.

After the integration subunit 2210 acquires the integrated spectrumusage related information in the form of the above activationprobability, the generation subunit 2220 generates, for each area,frequency band recommendation information based on the interferenceintegration information in combination with the spectrum usageintegration information according to a principle that the sub-spectrummanagement device with a high activation probability preferentiallyobtains a frequency band with a low interference probability. Forexample, the generation subunit 2220 may, according to the activationprobability obtained by the integration subunit 2210, provide a sequenceof sub-spectrum management devices {sub-spectrum management device A,sub-spectrum management device B, and sub-spectrum management device Csequentially} in descending order of the activation probability for thegiven area Areal. In addition, the generation subunit 2220 may give asequence of frequency bands {CH1, CH2, CH3, CH4, . . . , CHL} from lowto high interference probability for the given area Areal according tothe interference probability obtained by the integration subunit 2210.Therefore, for the given area Areal, the frequency band recommendationinformation generated by the generation subunit 2220 for thesub-spectrum management device A may indicate recommended frequencybands {CH1, CH2}, the frequency band recommendation informationgenerated by the generation subunit 2220 for the sub-spectrum managementdevice B may indicate the recommended frequency bands {CH3, CH4}, andthe frequency band recommendation information generated by thegeneration subunit 2220 for the sub-spectrum management device C mayindicate the recommended frequency band {CH5}. Optionally, thegeneration subunit 2220 also considers the principle of spectrumcontinuity when generating the spectrum usage guidance information,which is not described in detail here.

In this way, in the further preferred embodiment of the generation unit,the interference from unknown sources and the spectrum usage of thesecondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device arecomprehensively considered. In addition, appropriate guidance is givento the spectrum usage of the secondary systems, so that the secondarysystems managed by each sub-spectrum management device can avoidconflict with each other and interference from unknown sources.

2.2 Configuration Example of an Electronic Device on a Side of aSub-Spectrum Management Device Side 2.2.1 First Configuration Example ofthe Electronic Device on the Side of the Sub-Spectrum Management Device

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a first configuration example ofan electronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the electronic device 300 includes an acquisitionunit 310 and a communication unit 320.

Here, each unit of the electronic device 300 may be included in theprocessing circuitry. It should be noted that the electronic device 300may include either one processing circuitry or multiple processingcircuitry. Further, the processing circuitry may include variousdiscrete functional units to perform various functions and/oroperations. It should be noted that these functional units may bephysical entities or logical entities, and units with different namesmay be implemented by the same physical entity.

The acquisition unit 310 may acquire spectrum usage statisticalinformation. The spectrum usage statistical information includes, forexample, spectrum usage related information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device 300 serving as a sub-spectrummanagement device and interference related information of the managedsecondary system. The communication unit 320 may transmit the acquiredspectrum usage statistical information to the central spectrum device,for the central spectrum device to generate spectrum usage guidanceinformation for the secondary system managed by each electronic devicebased on the spectrum usage statistical information from at least oneelectronic device (for example, multiple sub-spectrum managementdevices). The least one electronic device is in an offline state. In anexample, here, the offline state may indicate a state of notcommunicating in real time with the central spectrum device.

Here, “at least one of the electronic devices” including the subjectelectronic device 300 is in an offline state, so that the spectrum usagestatistical information sent by the communication unit of the electronicdevice to the central spectrum device may not be acquired in real timeby the acquisition unit of the electronic device. For example, suchelectronic device may be pre-installed with information from ageolocation database and deployed locally (for example, a local serveror local computer), acquire the spectrum usage statistical informationof the managed secondary system through the acquisition unit in anoffline state, and transmit the spectrum usage statistical informationto the central spectrum device through the communication unit when theelectronic device is online rather than in real time. Such electronicdevices may transmit the spectrum usage statistical informationperiodically (for example, according to a pre-configured period) oraperiodically (for example, when switching from an offline state to anonline state).

In this way, even in the case where some sub-spectrum management devicesincluding the subject electronic device do not communicate with thecentral spectrum device in real time, the electronic device 300according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can provide thecentral spectrum device with the spectrum usage statistical informationof the secondary systems managed by the electronic device 300appropriately, for the central spectrum device to take into account theinformation from the various sub-spectrum management devices as a wholeto give appropriate guidance to the spectrum usage of the secondarysystems.

The acquisition unit 310 of the electronic device 300 shown in FIG. 3can acquire the spectrum usage statistical information in variousappropriate ways, that is, acquire the spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device 300and the interference related information of the secondary system managedby the electronic device 300. In an example, the spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system may be acquired by the electronicdevice 300 according to the historical information about spectrum usagestored by the electronic device 300. This is because the electronicdevice 300 manages the spectrum usage of the secondary system, and thehistorical information indicates the spectrum usage of the secondarysystem. Alternatively, the spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system may be acquired by the electronic device 300 from thesecondary system (that is, a base station of the secondary system)managed by the electronic device 300. Preferably, the interferencerelated information of the secondary system acquired by the acquisitionunit 310 indicates the interference suffered by the secondary systemdetermined through measurement. In an example, the interference relatedinformation of the secondary system may be obtained by measuring theinterference suffered by the secondary system under the control of theelectronic device 300.

In a preferred embodiment, the spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system acquired by the acquisition unit 310 may indicate anarea, a frequency band and a time of the spectrum usage of the secondarysystem. The interference related information of the secondary systemacquired by the acquisition unit 310 may indicate an area, a frequencyband and time of the interference suffered by the secondary system. Inan example, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem may include a geographic location, a coverage, as well as a timeand a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of thesecondary system.

In this case, the acquisition unit 310 may acquire the spectrum usagerelated information of the secondary system, for example, by reading thespectrum usage of the secondary system in different areas and differenttime and different frequency bands recorded by the electronic device 300during the spectrum usage of the secondary system. Alternatively, theacquisition unit 310 may receive spectrum usage related informationindicating the area, frequency band and time of spectrum usage of thesecondary system from the secondary system (that is, the base station ofthe secondary system) managed by the electronic device 300.

In addition, the acquisition unit 310 may control a spectrum scanningdevice to perform spectrum scanning on operation environment of thesecondary systems during the operation process of the secondary systems,so as to obtain the interference information on each frequency band asthe interference related information of the secondary systems.

More specifically, in one example, during the spectrum usage process ofthe secondary system managed by the electronic device 300, theacquisition unit 310 may, for example, divide the geographic area (forexample, the geographic area corresponding to the geographic locationdatabase pre-installed in the electronic device 300) covered by themanagement of the electronic device 300 into multiple geographic gridsaccording to the pre-configuration of the central spectrum device, andrecord the spectrum usage related information in each geographic grid.The spectrum usage related information includes spectrum scan duration(may also be referred to as measurement period, preferably a samemeasurement period for all spectrum scan) on different frequency bands(or channels), detected interference intensity, and duration from startto end of the interference in each geographic grid. It should be notedthat during the scanning process, the electronic device 300 controlseach secondary system managed by the electronic device 300 to be silent.Therefore, the interference caused by other systems (e.g., the secondarysystems managed by other sub-spectrum management device, or unknowninterference sources) other than the secondary systems managed by theelectronic device 300 is actually measured.

The spectrum usage statistical information acquired by the acquisitionunit 310 in this way and transmitted by the communication unit 320 mayinclude two lists. A first list List1 _(A) indicates spectrum usagerelated information of each secondary system managed by the electronicdevice 300. The second list List2 _(A) indicates the interferencerelated information of the respective secondary systems managed by theelectronic device 300.

More specifically, an item in the first list List1 _(A) indicating thespectrum usage related information may correspond to the usage of afrequency band by a secondary system managed by the electronic device300 in an area, and is in a form, for example, including (a serialnumber of a sub-spectrum management device corresponding to theelectronic device 300, a serial number of the secondary system, an area,a frequency band, duration from start to end of the spectrum usage).Here, the area may be, for example, a serial number of a geographic gridobtained by the electronic device 300 dividing a geographic area basedon a pre-determined configuration according to the pre-configuration ofthe electronic device serving as the central spectrum device.Alternatively, the area may also be indicated by the actual geographiclocation of the geographic grid to which the spectrum usage corresponds.

Optionally, as a variant, an item in the first list List1 _(A)indicating spectrum usage related information may indicate spectrumusage of a base station of a secondary system managed by the electronicdevice 300, and is in a form, for example, including (a serial number ofa sub-spectrum management device corresponding to the electronic device300, a serial number of the secondary system, a serial number of a basestation, a geographic location of the base station, a coverage of thebase station, a frequency band, and duration from start to end of thespectrum usage). In this case, the electronic device on the side of thecentral spectrum device determines the corresponding area according tothe geographic location of the base station and the coverage of the basestation in the item, and converts the items about the base stationindividually or collectively into the form of the items about thesecondary system described above (that is, a serial number of asub-spectrum management device, a serial number of the secondary system,an area, a frequency band, duration from start to end of the spectrumusage).

In addition, an item in the second list List2 _(A) indicating theinterference related information may correspond to the interference of afrequency band suffered by the secondary system managed by theelectronic device in an area, and is in the form of (a serial number ofthe sub-spectrum management device, a serial number of interference, anarea, a frequency band, duration from start to end of the interference),and may optionally include interference strength. The area here may alsobe the serial number of the geographic grid obtained by dividing thegeographic area by the sub-spectrum management device according to thepredetermined rules. Alternatively, the area may also be indicated bythe actual geographic location of the geographic grid to which theinterference corresponds.

The first configuration example of the electronic device on the side ofthe sub-spectrum management device according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure is described above with reference to FIG. 3 .

2.2.2 Second Configuration Example of the Electronic Device on the Sideof the Sub-Spectrum Management Device

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a second configuration example ofan electronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The secondconfiguration example shown in FIG. 4 is a further improved examplebased on the first configuration example shown in FIG. 3 . Therefore,the following description is made on the basis of the firstconfiguration example shown in FIG. 3 above.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the electronic device 400 may include anacquisition unit 410 and a communication unit 420, which arerespectively similar to the acquisition unit 310 and the communicationunit 320 in the electronic device 300 shown in FIG. 3 . In addition, theelectronic device 400 optionally includes a determination unit 430. Inthis configuration example, the communication unit 320 is configured toreceive the spectrum usage guidance information generated by the centralspectrum device from the central spectrum device. The determination unit430 is configured to determine the spectrum usage of the secondarysystem managed by the electronic device 400 with reference to thespectrum usage guide information generated by the central spectrumdevice.

Here, the determination unit 430 has the basic function of calculatingthe available spectrum resources of the secondary system of the general(sub) spectrum management device. For example, the determination unit430 may calculate the interference of the secondary system to theprimary system based on factors such as the geographic location of thesecondary system, the geographic location of the primary system to beprotected, the spectrum usage (e.g., transmit power, antenna height,transmission template) of the secondary system to the primary system,and calculates the available spectrum resources for the secondary systemaccording to the calculated interference.

Furthermore, in this configuration example, the communication unit 320receives the spectrum usage guide information generated by the centralspectrum device from the central spectrum device. Therefore, thedetermination unit 430 can comprehensively consider the availablespectrum resources calculated according to the interference to theprimary system and the spectrum usage guidance information generated bythe central spectrum device, so as to optimally determine the finalspectrum usage of the secondary system. As an example, the determinationunit 430 may determine the spectrum resource finally utilized by thesecondary system from the calculated available spectrum resources basedon the spectrum usage guide information.

The second configuration example of the electronic device on the side ofthe sub-spectrum management device according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure has been described above with reference to FIG. 4 .

It should be noted that the electronic devices 300 and 400 on the sideof the sub-spectrum management device described with reference to FIGS.3 and 4 may be served by the electronic device 100 (including thefunctional units in the electronic device on the side of the centralspectrum device described with reference to FIG. 2 ) on the side of thecentral spectrum device described with reference to FIG. 1 and interactwith the electronic device 100. Therefore, the above-describedconfiguration examples of the electronic device on the side of thecentral spectrum device and related embodiments are appropriatelyapplied to the electronic devices 300 and 400 on the side of thesub-spectrum management device.

2.3 Example of Information Exchange Process on a Centralized SpectrumManagement Mode

Next, an example of an information exchange process in a centralizedspectrum management mode according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure is described with reference to FIG. 5 .

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an informationexchange process of centralized spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 schematically shows acentral spectrum device and two sub-spectrum management devices A and B.As shown in FIG. 5 , the sub-spectrum management devices A and B sendrespective spectrum usage statistical information A and B to the centralspectrum device. The spectrum usage statistical information includesspectrum usage related information of the secondary system managed bythe sub-spectrum management device and interference related informationof the secondary system managed by the corresponding sub-spectrummanagement device. The central spectrum device generates spectrum usageguidance information A for the secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device A based on the spectrum usage statisticalinformation A from the sub-spectrum management device A, and transmitsthe spectrum usage guidance information A to the sub-spectrum managementdevice A. The central spectrum device generates spectrum usage guidanceinformation B for the secondary system managed by the sub-spectrummanagement device B based on the spectrum usage statistical informationB from the sub-spectrum management device B, and transmits the spectrumusage guidance information A to the sub-spectrum management device B.Here, for example, at least the sub-spectrum management device A has anoffline state. The central spectrum device therefore communicates withthe sub-spectrum management device A periodically or only when thesub-spectrum management device A is online. The example flow shown inFIG. 5 may be implemented by each configuration example of theelectronic device in the centralized spectrum management mode describedabove with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 , and thus is not described furtherhere.

2.4 Example Application Scenario in the Centralized Spectrum ManagementMode

Next, an example of an information exchange process in a centralizedspectrum management mode according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure is described with reference to FIG. 6 .

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example applicationscenario of the centralized spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6 , under themanagement of the central spectrum device, the two sub-spectrummanagement devices A and B manage their respective secondary system aand secondary system b to access an idle frequency band of the primarysystem TV (television system). The sub-spectrum management devices A andB are pre-installed with the information of the geographic locationdatabase and deployed on the local computer, and only communicate withthe central spectrum device periodically. The secondary system a managedby the sub-spectrum management device A includes a base station BSa anda terminal device Ua such as a camera. The secondary system b managed bythe sub-spectrum management device B includes a base station BSb and aterminal device Ub. FIG. 6 also schematically shows a spectrum scanningdevice FS equipped for the sub-spectrum management device B. Althoughnot shown in FIG. 6 , the sub-spectrum management device A may also beequipped with a similar spectrum scanning device. In the examplescenario shown in FIG. 6 , there is an unknown interference sourceUN-interference, for example, a microphone, which is not managed by anyspectrum management device. The unknown interference sourceUN-interference also accesses the idle spectrum of the TV of the primarysystem as a secondary system.

In the example scenario shown in FIG. 6 , the central spectrum devicemay be implemented, for example, by the electronic device 100 describedwith reference to FIG. 1 , including the generation unit 220 in theelectronic device described with reference to FIG. 2 . For example, thesub-spectrum management devices A and B may each be implemented by theelectronic device 300 or 400 as described above with reference to FIG. 3and FIG. 4 . Correspondingly, the central spectrum device and thesub-spectrum management devices A and B may jointly implement thecentralized spectrum management according to, for example, the signalinginteraction process shown in FIG. 5 .

More specifically, in this example, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation obtained by the central spectrum device from eachsub-spectrum management device may include two lists, namely, a firstlist List1 indicating spectrum usage related information and a secondlist List2 indicating interference related information.

The central spectrum device may aggregate the first lists List1 _(A) andList1 _(B) respectively from the sub-spectrum management devices A and Bin the specific manner in the configuration example of the generationunit 220 described with reference to FIG. 2 so as obtain a first generaltable LIST1 including spectrum usage related information of secondarysystems a and b; and aggregates and integrates the second lists List2_(A) and List2 _(B) respectively from the sub-spectrum managementdevices A and B so as to obtain a second general list LIST2 indicatingthe interference suffered by the secondary systems a and b. Based on thefirst general table LIST1 and the second general table LIST2, thecentral spectrum device can determine the interference from unknownsource IN-interference other than the interference caused by thesecondary systems a and b in the specific manner in the configurationexample of the generation unit 220 described with reference to FIG. 2 byexcluding interference caused by the spectrum usage of the secondarysystems a and b, and acquire a list LIST0 of interference from unknownsources. LIST0 may include interference items for IN-interference. Basedon the list LIST0 of interference from unknown sources, the centralspectrum device may determine interference integration information andgenerate appropriate spectrum usage guidance information based on theinterference integration information to coordinate the spectrum usage ofsecondary systems a and b, thereby protecting secondary systems a and bfrom IN-interference from unknown sources.

3. Configuration Example of an Electronic Device Involved in DistributedSpectrum Management 3.1 First Configuration Example of an ElectronicDevice that May be Utilized for Distributed Spectrum Management

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a first configuration example ofan electronic device that may be utilized for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 7 , the electronic device 700 may include anacquisition unit 710, a generation unit 720, and a communication unit730.

Here, each unit of the electronic device 700 may be included inprocessing circuitry. It should be noted that the electronic device 700may include either one processing circuitry or multiple processingcircuitry. Further, the processing circuitry may include variousdiscrete functional units to perform various functions and/oroperations. It should be noted that these functional units may bephysical entities or logical entities, and units with different namesmay be implemented by the same physical entity.

The acquisition unit 710 may acquire spectrum usage statisticalinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device 700(e.g., serving as a distributed spectrum management device). Thespectrum usage statistical information includes spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device 700and interference related information of the secondary system. Thecommunication unit 720 may receive spectrum usage statisticalinformation from another such electronic device (e.g., other distributedspectrum management devices). At least one of the another electronicdevice is in an offline state. For example, the offline state mayindicate a state in which real-time communication between electronicdevices is not performed. The generation unit 730 may generate spectrumusage guidance information of the secondary system managed by theelectronic device 700 based on the acquired spectrum usage statisticalinformation and the received spectrum usage statistical information.

With reference to the above configuration example of the electronicdevice in the centralized spectrum management mode, it can be known thatin the configuration example of the electronic device 700 fordistributed spectrum management shown in FIG. 7 , the acquisition unit710 may have the function of the acquisition unit 310 in the electronicdevice 300 on the side of the sub-spectrum management device describedwith reference to FIG. 3 . The communication unit 720 may have thefunction of the communication unit 110 in the electronic device 100 onthe side of the central spectrum device described with reference to FIG.1 . The generation unit 730 may have the function of the generation unit120 in the electronic device 100 on the side of the central spectrumdevice described with reference to FIG. 1 . In addition, it should beunderstood that the communication unit 720 in the electronic device 700for distributed spectrum management further transmits the spectrum usagestatistical information of the secondary system managed by theelectronic device 700 to other distributed spectrum management devices,in addition to receives spectrum usage statistical information fromother electronic devices, that is, other distributed spectrum managementdevices. Therefore, the communication unit 720 also has the function ofthe communication unit 320 in the electronic device 300 on the side ofthe sub-spectrum management device described with reference to FIG. 3 .

Therefore, it should be understood that various aspects in the aboveconfiguration examples regarding the electronic device 100 and theelectronic device 300 in the centralized spectrum management mode areappropriately applicable to the electronic device 700 for distributedspectrum management. Only the differences between the electronic device700 for distributed spectrum management and the electronic device 100and the electronic device 300 are described below.

For example, for the distributed spectrum management, each distributedspectrum management device such as the electronic device 700 cantheoretically calculate the spectrum usage guidance information of thesecondary systems managed by all the spectrum management devices with aunified algorithm based on the spectrum usage statistical information ofall the spectrum management devices. In practice, however, thegeneration unit 730 in the electronic device 700 may only performminimal calculations related to generating the spectrum usage guidanceinformation of the electronic device 700, which is not described indetail here.

The communication unit 720 in the electronic device 700 may beconfigured to periodically (e.g., according to a preconfigured period)or aperiodically (e.g., when switching from an offline state to anonline state) receive spectrum usage statistical information fromanother electronic device (other distributed spectrum managementdevice). In addition, the communication unit 720 may be configured toperiodically or aperiodically transmit the acquired spectrum usagestatistical information of the secondary systems managed by theelectronic device 700 to the another electronic device (anotherdistributed spectrum management device).

Optionally, the communication unit 720 in the electronic device 700 isfurther configured to exchange synchronization period information withanother electronic device (another distributed spectrum managementdevice). Based on the exchanged synchronization period information, therespective distributed spectrum management devices may employ anappropriate manner to ensure that the spectrum usage statisticalinformation utilized by each distributed spectrum management device tocalculate spectrum usage guidance information is updated synchronously.

Preferably, in the spectrum usage statistical information, theinterference related information of the secondary system indicates theinterference suffered by the secondary system determined throughmeasurement.

Preferably, in the spectrum usage statistical information, the spectrumusage related information of the secondary system indicates an area, afrequency band and a time of the spectrum usage of the secondary system.The interference related information of a secondary system indicates anarea, a frequency band, and a time of interference suffered by thesecondary system. Optionally, the spectrum usage related information ofthe secondary system includes a geographic location, a coverage, as wellas a time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station ofthe secondary system.

Preferably, the generation unit 730 may be further configured to:determine interference integration information associated with the areaand the frequency band based on the acquired spectrum usage statisticalinformation and the received spectrum usage statistical information.

More specifically, the generation unit 730 may be further configured to:exclude, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information and frominterference suffered by a secondary system managed by each electronicdevice, a portion whose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by another electronic device, and determine the result of theexclusion as the interference from unknown source suffered by thesecondary system managed by the electronic device; and for thedetermined interference from all unknown sources, accumulate the time ofthe corresponding interference from unknown source in terms of the areaand the frequency band to determine the interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.

Optionally, the generation unit 730 may be further configured to: basedon the acquired spectrum usage statistical information and the receivedspectrum usage statistical information, for each electronic device,accumulate the time of spectrum usage of a secondary system managed bythe electronic device in terms of the area, to determine spectrum usageintegration information associated with an area.

Preferably, the generation unit 730 may be further configured to: basedon the determined integration information, generate frequency bandrecommendation information associated with the area for the secondarysystem managed by the electronic device, as the spectrum usage guidanceinformation.

For example, the frequency band recommendation information generated bythe generation unit 730 may include recommended frequency bands arrangedin a priority order.

3.2 Second Configuration Example of an Electronic Device that May beUtilized for Distributed Spectrum Management

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a second configuration example ofan electronic device that may be utilized for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Thesecond configuration example shown in FIG. 8 is a further improvedexample based on the first configuration example shown in FIG. 7 , andtherefore, the following description is made based on the firstconfiguration example shown in FIG. 7 above.

As shown in FIG. 8 , the electronic device 800 may include anacquisition unit 810, a generation unit 820, and a communication unit830, which are respectively similar to the acquisition unit 710, thegeneration unit 720, and the communication unit 730 in the electronicdevice 700 shown in FIG. 7 . In addition, the electronic device 800further includes a determination unit 840. In this configurationexample, the determination unit 840 may determine the spectrum usage ofthe secondary system managed by the electronic device 800 with referenceto the spectrum usage guide information generated by the generation unit720.

With reference to the above configuration example of the electronicdevice in the centralized spectrum management mode, it can be known thatin the configuration example of the electronic device 800 fordistributed spectrum management shown in FIG. 8 , the determination unit840 may have the function of the determination unit 430 in theelectronic device 400 on the side of the sub-spectrum management devicedescribed with reference to FIG. 4 . That is, the determination units840 and 430 both determine the spectrum usage of the managed secondarysystem based on the spectrum usage guide information. Therefore, variousaspects of the above determination unit 430 in the configuration exampleof the electronic device 400 are appropriately applied to thedetermination unit 840 of the electronic device 800 for distributedspectrum management, and thus are not repeated here.

3.3 Example of Information Exchange Process for Distributed SpectrumManagement

Next, an example of an information exchange process of distributedspectrum management according to an embodiment of the present disclosureis described with reference to FIG. 9 .

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an informationexchange process of the distributed spectrum management according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 9 schematically shows threedistributed spectrum management devices A, B, C. As shown in FIG. 9 ,the spectrum management devices A, B, and C transmit their respectivespectrum usage statistical information A, B, and C to other spectrumdevices. The spectrum usage statistical information includes spectrumusage related information of the secondary system managed by thecorresponding sub-spectrum management device and interference-relatedinformation of the secondary system. The spectrum management device Agenerates spectrum usage guidance information A for the secondary systemmanaged by the spectrum management device A based on the spectrum usagestatistical information A and the spectrum usage statistical informationreceived from other spectrum management devices. The spectrum managementdevice B generates spectrum usage guidance information B for thesecondary system managed by the spectrum management device B based onthe spectrum usage statistical information B and the spectrum usagestatistical information received from other spectrum management devices.The spectrum management device C generates spectrum usage guidanceinformation C for the secondary system managed by the spectrummanagement device C based on the spectrum usage statistical informationC and the spectrum usage statistical information received from otherspectrum management devices. Here, for example, at least the spectrummanagement device A has an offline state and thus communicates withother spectrum management devices periodically or only when online. Theexample flow shown in FIG. 9 may be implemented by each of theconfiguration examples of the electronic device for distributed spectrummanagement described above with reference to FIGS. 7 to 8 , and thus isnot described further here.

4. Example of an Electronic Device on a Side of a Base Station in aSecondary System

Corresponding to the centralized spectrum management of the embodimentsof the present disclosure described above, there is also provided anelectronic device on the base station side in the secondary systemaccording to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Theelectronic device includes a processing circuitry. The processingcircuitry is configured to: acquire spectrum usage related informationof the secondary system where the electronic device is located; and sendthe acquired spectrum usage related information to a sub-spectrummanagement device managing the secondary system, for the sub-spectrummanagement device to send the spectrum usage related information and theinterference related information of the secondary system to the centralspectrum device as spectrum usage statistical information, so that thecentral spectrum device generates spectrum usage guidance informationfor the secondary systems managed by each sub-spectrum management devicebased on the spectrum usage statistical information from the at leastone sub-spectrum management device. at least one sub-spectrum managementdevice is in an offline state. As an example, here, the offline statemay indicate a state of not communicating in real time with the centralspectrum device.

In addition, corresponding to the distributed spectrum management of theembodiments of the present disclosure described above, an electronicdevice on the base station side in the secondary system is also providedaccording to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Theelectronic device includes processing circuitry configured to: acquirespectrum usage related information of the secondary system where theelectronic device is located; and send the obtained spectrum usagerelated information to a spectrum management device that manages thesecondary system, for the spectrum management device to generatespectrum usage guidance information for the secondary system based onthe spectrum usage statistical information including the spectrum usagerelated information and interference related information of thesecondary system, and spectrum usage statistical information from otherspectrum management devices. At least one of the other spectrummanagement devices is in an offline state. As an example, here, theoffline state may indicate a state of not communicating with thespectrum management device in real time.

Here, the spectrum usage related information of the secondary systemwhere the electronic device on the base station side is located mayinclude spectrum usage related information performed by the base station(together with the terminal device served by the base station), andindicate an area, a frequency band, a time and the like of such spectrumusage. The electronic device on the base station side in the secondarysystem may acquire this information in any suitable manner. The specificform of the spectrum usage related information provided by theelectronic device may be consistent with/compatible with that describedin the above embodiments about the central spectrum device, thesub-spectrum management device, and the distributed spectrum managementdevice, and thus is not described in detail here.

5. Method Embodiments

Next, the method performed in the electronic device capable of spectrummanagement according to the embodiment of the present disclosure isdescribed in detail. It should be noted that these methodimplementations correspond to the device configuration examplesdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9 . Accordingly, thevarious details and benefits of the above device configuration examplesapply as appropriate to the following method embodiments.

5.1 Method Embodiments on a Side of a Central Spectrum Device

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method in anelectronic device on a side of a central spectrum device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. The method may be implemented, forexample, by the electronic device 100 (including the functional units ofthe electronic device 100 described with reference to FIG. 2 ) on theside of the central spectrum device described with reference to FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 10 , in step S1001, spectrum usage statisticalinformation from at least one sub-spectrum management device isreceived. The spectrum usage statistical information includes spectrumusage related information of a secondary system managed by thesub-spectrum management device and interference related information ofthe secondary system. Next, in step S1002, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for the secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device is generated based on the spectrum usage statisticalinformation from at least one sub-spectrum management device. The atleast one sub-spectrum management device is in an offline state. As anexample, here, the offline state may indicate a state of notcommunicating with the electronic device in real time.

Preferably, in the spectrum usage statistical information received instep S1001, the interference related information of the secondary systemindicates the interference suffered by the secondary system determinedthrough measurement.

Preferably, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem indicates an area, a frequency band and a time of the spectrumusage of the secondary system. The interference related information of asecondary system indicates an area, a frequency band, and a time ofinterference suffered by the secondary system.

Optionally, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem includes the geographic location, a coverage, as well as a timeand a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of thesecondary system.

Preferably, in step S1002, interference integration informationassociated with the area and the frequency band may be determined basedon spectrum usage statistical information from multiple sub-spectrummanagement devices.

More specifically, in step S1002, based on spectrum usage statisticalinformation from the multiple sub-spectrum management devices, a portionwhose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, a frequency bandand a time of spectrum usage of a secondary system managed by anothersub-spectrum management device is excluded from interference suffered bya secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device, andthe result of the excluding is determined as the interference fromunknown source suffered by the secondary systems managed by thesub-spectrum management device. In addition, the time of thecorresponding interference from unknown source may be accumulatedaccording to area and frequency band for all the determined interferencefrom unknown sources, so as to determine the interference integrationinformation associated with the area and frequency band.

Optionally, in step S1002, based on the spectrum usage statisticalinformation from multiple sub-spectrum management devices, the time ofspectrum usage of the secondary system managed by the sub-spectrummanagement device may be accumulated for each sub-spectrum managementdevice by region, to determine the spectrum usage integrationinformation associated with the area.

Optionally, in step S1002, based on the determined integrationinformation, frequency band recommended information associated with thearea for the secondary systems managed by each sub-spectrum managementdevice may be generated as the spectrum usage guidance information.

Preferably, the frequency band recommendation information generated instep S1002 includes recommended frequency bands arranged in order ofpriority.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subjectperforming the above method may be the electronic device 100 (includingthe functional units of the electronic device described with referenceto FIG. 2 ) according to the embodiment of the present disclosure.Various aspects of the foregoing embodiments of the electronic device100 and its functional units therefore applicable to here.

5.2 Method Embodiments on a Side of a Sub-Spectrum Management Device

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method in anelectronic device on a side of a sub-spectrum management deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may beimplemented by, for example, the electronic devices 300 and 400 on theside of the sub-spectrum management device described with reference toFIGS. 3 and 4 .

As shown in FIG. 11 , in step S1101, spectrum usage statisticalinformation is acquired. The spectrum usage statistical informationincludes spectrum usage related information of the secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device (as the sub-spectrum management device)and interference related information of the secondary system. Next, instep S1102, the acquired spectrum usage statistical information is sentto the central spectrum device, for the central spectrum device togenerate spectrum usage guidance information for the secondary systemmanaged by each of the electronic devices based on spectrum usagestatistical information from at least one of the electronic devices. Atleast one of the electronic devices is in an offline state. As anexample, here, the offline state may indicate a state of notcommunicating in real time with the central spectrum device.

Preferably, in the spectrum usage statistical information acquired instep S1101, the interference related information of the secondary systemindicates the interference suffered by the secondary system determinedthrough measurement.

Preferably, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem indicates an area, a frequency band and a time of the spectrumusage of the secondary system. The interference related information ofthe secondary system indicates an area, a frequency band, and a time ofthe interference suffered by the secondary system.

Optionally, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem includes a geographic location, a coverage, as well as a time anda frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of the secondarysystem.

Optionally, the processing in step S1102 is performed periodically oraperiodically, that is, the acquired spectrum usage statisticalinformation is periodically sent to the central spectrum device.

Optionally, the method performed by the electronic device may furtherinclude: determining the spectrum usage of the secondary system managedby the electronic device with reference to spectrum usage guidanceinformation generated by the central spectrum device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subjectperforming the above method may be the electronic devices 300 and 400according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. The variousaspects of the foregoing with respect to the embodiments of electronicdevices 300 and 400 therefore are applicable to here.

5.3 Method Embodiments in a Distributed Spectrum Management Mode

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method thatmay be utilized in an electronic device for distributed spectrummanagement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Themethod may be implemented, for example, by the electronic devices 700and 800 for distributed spectrum management described with reference toFIGS. 7 and 8 .

As shown in FIG. 12 , in step S1201, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device(serving as the distributed spectrum management device) is acquired. Thespectrum usage statistical information includes spectrum usage relatedinformation of the secondary system managed by the electronic device andinterference related information of the secondary system. Next, in stepS1202, spectrum usage statistical information from other electronicdevices is received. At least one of the other electronic devices is inan offline state. As an example, here, the offline state may indicate astate of not communicating with the electronic device in real time.Next, in step S1203, based on the acquired spectrum usage statisticalinformation and the received spectrum usage statistical information, thespectrum usage guidance information of the secondary system managed bythe electronic device is generated.

Preferably, in the spectrum usage statistical information, theinterference related information of the secondary system indicates theinterference suffered by the secondary system determined throughmeasurement.

Preferably, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem indicates an area, a frequency band and a time of the spectrumusage of the secondary system. The interference related information of asecondary system indicates the area, frequency band, and time ofinterference suffered by the secondary system.

Optionally, the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem includes a geographic location, a coverage, as well as a time anda frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of the secondarysystem.

Preferably, interference integration information associated with areaand frequency band may be determined based on the acquired spectrumusage statistical information and the received spectrum usagestatistical information.

More specifically, based on the acquired spectrum usage statisticalinformation and the received spectrum usage statistical information, aportion whose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, a frequencyband and a time of spectrum usage of a secondary system managed byanother electronic device is excluded from interference suffered by asecondary system managed by each electronic device, and a result ofexcluding is determined as the interference from unknown source sufferedby the secondary systems managed by the electronic device. In addition,the time of the corresponding interference from unknown source may beaccumulated according to area and frequency band for all the determinedinterference from unknown sources, so as to determine the interferenceintegration information associated with the area and frequency band.

Optionally, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information, the time ofspectrum usage of the secondary systems managed by the electronic devicemay be accumulated by area for each of the electronic devices, so as todetermine the spectrum usage integration information associated with thearea.

Preferably, based on the determined integration information, thefrequency band recommendation information associated with the area forthe secondary system managed by the electronic device may be generatedas the spectrum usage guidance information.

Preferably, the frequency band recommendation information includesrecommended frequency bands arranged in order of priority.

Optionally, spectrum usage statistical information may be received fromother electronic devices periodically or aperiodically. In addition, theacquired spectrum usage statistical information of the secondary systemsmanaged by the electronic device may be sent to the other electronicdevices periodically or aperiodically.

Optionally, synchronization period information may be exchanged with theother electronic devices.

Optionally, the method performed by the electronic device may furtherinclude: with reference to the generated spectrum usage guidanceinformation, determining the spectrum usage of the secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subjectperforming the above method may be the electronic devices 700 and 800according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. Accordingly,various aspects of the foregoing with respect to the embodiments ofelectronic devices 700 and 800 are applicable to here.

6. Application Examples

The technology of the present disclosure may be applied to variousproducts.

For example, the electronic device 100, 300, 400, 700, or 800 may beimplemented as any type of server, such as a tower server, a rackserver, and a blade server. The electronic device 100 may be a controlmodule (such as integrated circuitry module including a single die, anda card or blade inserted into a slot of a blade server) mounted on aserver.

For example, the electronic device on the base station side may beimplemented as any type of base station device, such as a macro eNB anda small eNB, and may also be implemented as any type of gNB (basestation in a 5G system). She small eNB may be an eNB covering a cellsmaller than a macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home(femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as anyother type of base station, such as a NodeB and a base transceiverstation (BTS). A base station may include: a subject (also referred toas a base station device) configured to control wireless communications;and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) disposed at a differentlocation than the subject.

In addition, the electronic device on the base station side may also beimplemented as any type of TRP. The TRP may have sending and receivingfunctions, for example, may receive information from user equipment anda base station device, and may also send information to the userequipment and the base station device. In a typical example, the TRP mayserve the user equipment and be controlled by the base station device.Further, the TRP may have a structure similar to that of the basestation device, or may have only the structure related to sending andreceiving information in the base station device.

Application Example of Server

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a server 1300 to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The server 1300 includes a processor 1301, amemory 1302, a storage device 1303, a network interface 1304 and a bus1306.

The processor 1301 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU)or a digital signal processor (DSP), and controls the functions of theserver 1300. The memory 1302 includes a random-access memory (RAM) and aread only memory (ROM), and stores data and programs executed by theprocessor 1301. The storage device 1303 may include a storage mediumsuch as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk.

The network interface 1304 is a wired communication interface forconnecting the server 1300 to a wired communication network 1305. Thewired communication network 1305 may be a core network such as anevolved packet core network (EPC) or a packet data network (PDN) such asthe Internet.

The processor 1301, the memory 1302, the storage device 1303, and thenetwork interface 1304 are connected to each other via the bus 1306. Thebus 1306 may include two or more buses (such as a high-speed bus and alow-speed bus) each having a different speed.

In the server 1300 shown in FIG. 13 , the communication units of theelectronic devices 100, 300, 700, and 800 described with reference toFIGS. 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8 may be implemented by, for example, the networkinterface 1304. In addition, at least a part of the functions of thefollowing units may be implemented by the processor 1301 of the server1300: the generation units of the electronic devices 100, 700, and 800described with reference to FIG. 1 , FIG. 7 , and FIG. 8 ; theacquisition unit of the electronic devices 300, 400, 700, 800 describedwith reference to FIG. 3 , FIG. 4 , FIG. 7 , and FIG. 8 ; thedetermination units of the electronic devices 400 and 800 described withreference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 8 , and the like. For example, theprocessor 1301 may perform the operation of generating the spectrumusage guidance information of the present application by performing theoperation of the generation unit.

Application Examples about Base Station First Application Example

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. The eNB 1800 includes one or more antennas1810 and a base station device 1820. The base station device 1820 may beconnected to each antenna 1810 via an RF cable.

Each of the antennas 1810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) antenna), and is utilized by the base stationdevice 1820 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in FIG.14 , the eNB 1800 may include multiple antennas 1810. For example,multiple antennas 1810 may be compatible with multiple frequency bandsutilized by the eNB 1800. Although FIG. 14 shows an example in which theeNB 1800 includes multiple antennas 1810, the eNB 1800 may also includea single antenna 1810.

The base station device 1820 includes a controller 1821, a memory 1822,a network interface 1823, and a wireless communication interface 1825.

The controller 1821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operatesvarious functions of a higher layer of the base station device 1820. Forexample, the controller 1821 generates a data packet from the data inthe signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1825, andsends the generated packet via the network interface 1823. Thecontroller 1821 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors togenerate a bundled packet, and deliver the generated bundled packet. Thecontroller 1821 may have logical functions to perform controls such asradio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management,admission control, and scheduling. This control may be performed inconjunction with a nearby eNB or core network node. The memory 1822includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller1821 and various types of control data such as a terminal list,transmission power data, and scheduling data.

The network interface 1823 is a communication interface for connectingthe base station device 1820 to the core network 1824. The controller1821 may communicate with core network nodes or further eNBs via thenetwork interface 1823. In this case, the eNB 1800 may be connected tothe core network node or other eNB via a logical interface such as S1interface and X2 interface. The network interface 1823 may also be awired communication interface or a wireless communication interface forwireless backhaul. If the network interface 1823 is a wirelesscommunication interface, the network interface 1823 may use a higherfrequency band for wireless communication than the frequency bandutilized by the wireless communication interface 1825.

The wireless communication interface 1825 supports any cellularcommunication scheme, such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) andLTE-Advanced, and provides wireless connection to terminals located inthe cell of the eNB 1800 via the antenna 1810. The wirelesscommunication interface 1825 may generally include, for example, abaseband (BB) a processor 1826 and RF circuitry 1827. The BB processor1826 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing of layers (e.g., L1, Medium AccessControl (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data ConvergenceProtocol (PDCP)). In place of the controller 1821, the BB processor 1826may have some or all of the above-described logical functions. The BBprocessor 1826 may be a memory storing a communication control program,or a module including a processor and associated circuitry configured toexecute the program. An update procedure may cause the functionality ofthe BB processor 1826 to change. The module may be a card or blade thatis inserted into a slot of the base station device 1820. Alternatively,the module may be a chip mounted on a card or blade. Further, the RFcircuitry 1827 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna1810.

As shown in FIG. 14 , the wireless communication interface 1825 mayinclude multiple BB processors 1826. For example, the multiple BBprocessors 1826 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands utilizedby the eNB 1800. As shown in FIG. 14 , the wireless communicationinterface 1825 may include multiple RF circuitry 1827. For example, themultiple RF circuitry 1827 may be compatible with multiple antennaelements. Although FIG. 18 shows an example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 1825 includes multiple BB processors 1826 andmultiple RF circuitry 1827, the wireless communication interface 1825may include a single BB processor 1826 or a single RF circuitry 1827.

In the eNB 1800 shown in FIG. 14 , the communication function of theprocessing circuitry of the electronic device on the base station sidein the secondary system described in <4. Example of an electronic deviceon a side of a base station in a secondary system> may be implemented bythe wireless communication interface 1825. At least a part of thefunctions of the electronic device on the base station side in thesecondary system for acquiring spectrum usage related information may beimplemented by the controller 1821. For example, the controller 1821 mayimplement at least a part of the acquisition function of the electronicdevice on the base station side in the secondary system by executing theinstructions stored in the memory 1822, which is not repeated here.

Second Application Example

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematicconfiguration of an eNB to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied. eNB 1930 includes one or more antennas 1940,a base station device 1950 and an RRH 1960. The RRH 1960 may beconnected to each antenna 1940 via an RF cable. The base station device1950 may be connected to the RRH 1960 via a high-speed line such as anoptical fiber cable.

Each of the antennas 1940 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and isutilized by the RRH 1960 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Asshown in FIG. 15 , the eNB 1930 may include multiple antennas 1940. Forexample, the multiple antennas 1940 may be compatible with multiplefrequency bands utilized by the eNB 1930. Although FIG. 15 shows anexample in which the eNB 1930 includes the multiple antennas 1940, theeNB 1930 may also include a single antenna 1940.

The base station device 1950 includes a controller 1951, a memory 1952,a network interface 1953, a wireless communication interface 1955, and aconnection interface 1957. The controller 1951, the memory 1952 and thenetwork interface 1953 are the same as the controller 1821, the memory1822 and the network interface 1823 described with reference to FIG. 15, respectively.

The wireless communication interface 1955 supports any cellularcommunication scheme, such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, and provideswireless communication via an RRH 1960 and the antenna 1940 to terminalslocated in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1960.

The wireless communication interface 1955 may generally include, forexample, a BB processor 1956. The BB processor 1956 is the same as theBB processor 1826 described with reference to FIG. 14 , except that theBB processor 1956 is connected to the RF circuitry 1964 of the RRH 1960via the connection interface 1957. As shown in FIG. 15 , the wirelesscommunication interface 1955 may include multiple BB processors 1956.For example, the multiple BB processors 1956 may be compatible withmultiple frequency bands utilized by the eNB 1930. Although FIG. 19shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1955includes the multiple BB processors 1956, the wireless communicationinterface 1955 may also include a single BB processor 1956.

The connection interface 1957 is an interface for connecting the basestation device 1950 (the wireless communication interface 1955) to theRRH 1960. The connection interface 1957 may also be a communicationmodule for communication in the above-described high-speed lineconnecting the base station device 1950 (the wireless communicationinterface 1955) to the RRH 1960.

The RRH 1960 includes a connection interface 1961 and a wirelesscommunication interface 1963.

The connection interface 1961 is an interface for connecting the RRH1960 (the wireless communication interface 1963) to the base stationdevice 1950. The connection interface 1961 may also be a communicationmodule for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

The wireless communication interface 1963 transmits and receiveswireless signals via the antenna 1940. The wireless communicationinterface 1963 may generally include RF circuitry 1964, for example. TheRF circuitry 1964 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna1940. As shown in FIG. 15 , the wireless communication interface 1963may include multiple RF circuitry 1964. For example, the multiple RFcircuitry 1964 may support multiple antenna elements.

Although FIG. 15 shows an example in which the wireless communicationinterface 1963 includes the multiple RF circuitry 1964, the wirelesscommunication interface 1963 may include a single RF circuitry 1964.

In the eNB 1930 shown in FIG. 15 , the communication function of theprocessing circuitry of the electronic device on the base station sidein the secondary system described in <4. Example of an electronic deviceon a side of a base station in a secondary system> may be implemented bythe wireless communication interface 1963. At least a part of thefunctions of acquiring spectrum usage related information of theelectronic device on the base station side in the secondary system maybe implemented by the controller 1951. For example, the controller 1951may implement at least a part of the acquisition function of theelectronic device on the base station side in the secondary system byexecuting the instructions stored in the memory 1952, which is notrepeated here.

The basic principles of the present disclosure have been described abovewith reference to specific embodiments. However, it should be pointedout that those skilled in the art should understand that all or anysteps or components of the method and device of the present disclosuremay be implemented in any computing device (including a processor, astorage medium and the like) or a network of computing devices in theform of hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. This canbe achieved by those skilled in the art using their basic circuitrydesign knowledge or basic programming skills after reading thedescription of the present disclosure.

Furthermore, a program product storing machine-readable instructioncodes is further provided according to the present disclosure. When theinstruction codes are read and executed by a machine, the above methodaccording to the embodiment of the present disclosure is implemented.

Correspondingly, a storage medium for carrying the program productstoring the machine-readable instruction codes is also included in thepresent disclosure. The storage medium includes, but is not limited to,a floppy disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, amemory stick, and the like.

In the case where the present disclosure is implemented by software orfirmware, a program constituting the software is installed from astorage medium or a network to a computer having a dedicated hardwarestructure (e.g., a general-purpose computer 1600 shown in FIG. 16 ). Thecomputer executes various functions and the like when installed withvarious programs.

In FIG. 16 , a central processing unit (CPU) 1601 performs variousprocessing according to a program stored in a read only memory (ROM)1602 or a program loaded from a storage part 1608 to a random-accessmemory (RAM) 1603. In the RAM 1603, data required when the CPU 1601performs various processing and the like is also stored as necessary.The CPU 1601, the ROM 1602 and the RAM 1603 are connected to each othervia a bus 1604. An input/output interface 1605 is also connected to thebus 1604.

The following components are connected to the input/output interface1605: an input part 1606 (including a keyboard, mouse and the like), anoutput part 1607 (including a display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT)and a liquid crystal display (LCD), as well as a speaker and the like),a storage part 1608 (including a hard disk and the like), acommunication part 1609 (including a network interface card such as aLAN card and a modem). The communication part 1609 performscommunication processing via a network such as the Internet. A driver1610 may also be connected to the input/output interface 1605 asnecessary. A removable medium 1611 such as a magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory is mounted onthe driver 1610 as necessary, so that a computer program read therefromis installed into the storage part 1608 as necessary.

In the case where the series of processing is implemented by software, aprogram constituting the software is installed from a network such asthe Internet or a storage medium such as the removable medium 1611.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the storagemedium is not limited to the removable medium 1611 shown in FIG. 16 inwhich the program is stored and distributed separately from the deviceto provide the program to the user. Examples of the removable medium1611 include a magnetic disk (including a floppy disk (registeredtrademark)), an optical disk (including a compact disk read only memory(CD-ROM) and a digital versatile disk (DVD)), a magneto-optical disk(including a minidisc (MD) (registered trademark)) and a semiconductormemory. Alternatively, the storage medium may be the ROM 1602, a harddisk included in the storage part 1608 or the like, in which programsare stored and distributed to user together with the device thatincludes the storage medium.

Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been describedabove with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in theart may male various changes and modifications within the scope of theappended claims. It should be understood that such changes andmodifications naturally fall within the technical scope of the presentdisclosure.

For example, in the functional block diagram shown in the drawings, theunits shown in dotted boxes all indicate that the functional units areoptional in the corresponding device. Further, the various optionalfunctional units may be combined in an appropriate manner to achieve thedesired functions.

For example, multiple functions included in one unit in the aboveembodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively,multiple functions implemented by multiple units in the aboveembodiments may be implemented by separate devices. In addition, one ofthe above functions may be implemented by multiple units. Needless tosay, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of thepresent disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include notonly processing performed in time series in the stated order, but alsoprocessing performed in parallel or individually rather than necessarilyin time series. Furthermore, even in the steps processed in time series,needless to say, the order may be appropriately changed.

Furthermore, the present disclosure may have configurations as describedbelow.

(1) An electronic device, including:

processing circuitry configured to:

receive spectrum usage statistical information from at least onesub-spectrum management device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed        by the sub-spectrum management device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by the sub-spectrum management device; and

generate, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from theat least one sub-spectrum management device, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device, where the at least one sub-spectrum management deviceis in an offline state.

(2) The electronic device according to (1), where the offline staterefers to a state of not communicating with the electronic device inreal time.

(3) The electronic device according to (1), where the interferencerelated information of the secondary system indicates interferencesuffered by the secondary system that is determined through measurement.

(4) The electronic device according to (1), where the spectrum usagerelated information of the secondary system indicates an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of the secondary system, andthe interference related information of the secondary system indicatesan area, a frequency band and a time of interference suffered by thesecondary system, where the spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system includes a geographic location, a coverage, as well asa time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of thesecondary system.

(5) The electronic device according to (4), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to:

exclude, based on spectrum usage statistical information from multiplesub-spectrum management devices, from interference suffered by asecondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device, aportion whose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, a frequencyband and a time of spectrum usage of a secondary system managed byanother sub-spectrum management device, and determine a result of theexcluding as interference from unknown sources suffered by the secondarysystem managed by each sub-spectrum management device; and

accumulate, with respect to all the determined interference from unknownsources, times of respective interference from unknown sources in termsof an area and a frequency band, to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.

(6) The electronic device according to (5), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to:

accumulate, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from themultiple sub-spectrum management devices, for each sub-spectrummanagement device, a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by that sub-spectrum management device in terms of an area, todetermine spectrum usage integration information associated with thearea.

(7) The electronic device according to (5) or (6), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to:

generate, based on the determined integration information, frequencyband recommendation information associated with an area for a secondarysystem managed by each sub-spectrum management device, as the spectrumusage guidance information.

(8) The electronic device according to (7), where the frequency bandrecommendation information includes recommended frequency bands arrangedin order of priority.

(9) An electronic device, including:

processing circuitry configured to:

acquire spectrum usage statistical information, the spectrum usagestatistical information including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed        by said electronic device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by said electronic device;

send the acquired spectrum usage statistical information to a centralspectrum device for the central spectrum device to generate, based onspectrum usage statistical information from at least one of theelectronic device in an offline state, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each said electronicdevice.

(10) The electronic device according to (9), where the offline staterefers to a state of not communicating with the central spectrum devicein real time.

(11) The electronic device according to (9), where the interferencerelated information of the secondary system indicates interferencesuffered by the secondary system that is determined through measurement.

(12) The electronic device according to (9), where the spectrum usagerelated information of the secondary system indicates an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of the secondary system, andthe interference related information of the secondary system indicatesan area, a frequency band and a time of interference suffered by thesecondary system, where the spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system includes a geographic location, a coverage, as well asa time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of thesecondary system.

(13) The electronic device according to (9), where the processingcircuitry is configured to periodically or aperiodically send theacquired spectrum usage statistical information to the central spectrumdevice.

(14) The electronic device according to (9), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to determine spectrum usage of thesecondary system managed by the electronic device with reference to thespectrum usage guidance information generated by the central spectrumdevice.

(15) An electronic device, including:

processing circuitry, configured to:

acquire spectrum usage related information of a secondary system inwhich the electronic device is located; and

send the acquired spectrum usage related information to a sub-spectrummanagement device that manages the secondary system, for thesub-spectrum management device to send the spectrum usage relatedinformation and interference related information of the secondary systemto a central spectrum device as spectrum usage statistical information,where the central spectrum device is configured to generate, based onspectrum usage statistical information from at least one of thesub-spectrum management device in an offline state, spectrum usageguidance information for a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device.

(16) An electronic device, including:

processing circuitry configured to:

acquire spectrum usage statistical information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of the secondary system        managed by the electronic device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by the electronic device;

receive spectrum usage statistical information from another electronicdevice, where at least one of the another electronic device is in anoffline state; and

generate, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information, spectrum usageguidance information for the secondary system managed by the electronicdevice.

(17) The electronic device according to (16), where the offline state isa state of no real-time communication between electronic devices.

(18) The electronic device according to (16), where the interferencerelated information of the secondary system indicates interferencesuffered by the secondary system that is determined through measurement.

(19) The electronic device according to (16), where the spectrum usagerelated information of the secondary system indicates an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of the secondary system, andthe interference related information of the secondary system indicatesan area, a frequency band and a time of interference suffered by thesecondary system, where the spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system includes a geographic location, a coverage, as well asa time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base station of thesecondary system.

(20) The electronic device according to (19), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to:

exclude, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information, frominterference suffered by a secondary system managed by each of theelectronic device, a portion whose area, frequency band and time overlapan area, a frequency band and a time of spectrum usage of a secondarysystem managed by another electronic device, and determine a result ofthe excluding as interference from unknown sources suffered by thesecondary system managed by each electronic device; and

accumulate, with respect to all the determined interference from unknownsources, times of respective interference from unknown sources in termsof an area and a frequency band, to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.

(21) The electronic device according to (20), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to:

accumulate, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information, for eachelectronic device, a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by that electronic device in terms of an area, to determinespectrum usage integration information associated with the area.

(22) The electronic device according to (20) or (21), where theprocessing circuitry is further configured to:

generate, based on the determined integration information, frequencyband recommendation information associated with an area for a secondarysystem managed by the electronic device, as the spectrum usage guidanceinformation.

(23) The electronic device according to (22), where the frequency bandrecommendation information includes recommended frequency bands arrangedin order of priority.

(24) The electronic device according to (16), where the processingcircuitry is configured to periodically or aperiodically receivespectrum usage statistical information from the another electronicdevice.

(25) The electronic device according to (16), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to periodically or aperiodically sendthe acquired spectrum usage statistical information of the secondarysystem managed by the electronic device to the another electronicdevice.

(26) The electronic device according to (16), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to exchange synchronization periodinformation with the another electronic device.

(27) The electronic device according to (16), where the processingcircuitry is further configured to determine spectrum usage of asecondary system managed by the electronic device with reference to thegenerated spectrum usage guidance information.

(28) An electronic device, including:

processing circuitry configured to:

acquire spectrum usage related information of a secondary system inwhich the electronic device is located; and

send the acquired spectrum usage related information to a spectrummanagement device that manages the secondary system, for the spectrummanagement device to generate spectrum usage guidance information forthe secondary system based on spectrum usage statistical informationincluding the spectrum usage related information and interferencerelated information of the secondary system, as well as spectrum usagestatistical information from another spectrum management device, whereat least one of the another spectrum management device is in an offlinestate.

(29) A method in an electronic device, the method including:

receiving spectrum usage statistical information from at least onesub-spectrum management device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed        by the sub-spectrum management device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by the sub-spectrum management device; and

generating, based on the spectrum usage statistical information from theat least one sub-spectrum management device, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrummanagement device, where the at least one sub-spectrum management deviceis in an offline state.

(30) A method in an electronic device, the method including:

acquiring spectrum usage statistical information, the spectrum usagestatistical information including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of a secondary system managed        by the electronic device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by said electronic device;

sending the acquired spectrum usage statistical information to a centralspectrum device for the central spectrum device to generate, based onspectrum usage statistical information from at least one of theelectronic device in an offline state, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each said electronicdevice.

(31) A method in an electronic device, the method including:

acquiring spectrum usage statistical information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including:

-   -   spectrum usage related information of the secondary system        managed by the electronic device, and    -   interference related information of the secondary system managed        by the electronic device;

receiving spectrum usage statistical information from another electronicdevice, where at least one of the another electronic device is in anoffline state; and

generating, based on the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationand the received spectrum usage statistical information, spectrum usageguidance information for the secondary system managed by the electronicdevice.

(32) A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a programwhich, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform themethod according to any one of (29) to (31).

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been describedin detail above with reference to the drawings. However, it should beunderstood that the above-described embodiments are only forillustrating the present disclosure rather than limiting the presentdisclosure. Various modifications and variations of the above-describedembodiments may be made by those skilled in the art without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, thescope of the present disclosure is to be limited by only the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

1. An electronic device, comprising: processing circuitry configured to:receive spectrum usage statistical information from at least onesub-spectrum management device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation including: spectrum usage related information of a secondarysystem managed by the sub-spectrum management device, and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by the sub-spectrummanagement device; and generate, based on the spectrum usage statisticalinformation from the at least one sub-spectrum management device,spectrum usage guidance information for a secondary system managed byeach sub-spectrum management device, wherein the at least onesub-spectrum management device is in an offline state.
 2. The electronicdevice according to claim 1, wherein the offline state refers to a stateof not communicating with the electronic device in real time, and/or theinterference related information of the secondary system indicatesinterference suffered by the secondary system that is determined throughmeasurement.
 3. (canceled)
 4. The electronic device according to claim1, wherein the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem indicates an area, a frequency band and a time of spectrum usageof the secondary system, and the interference related information of thesecondary system indicates an area, a frequency band and a time ofinterference suffered by the secondary system, wherein the spectrumusage related information of the secondary system includes a geographiclocation, a coverage, as well as a time and a frequency band of spectrumusage of a base station of the secondary system.
 5. The electronicdevice according to claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: exclude, based on spectrum usage statistical informationfrom a plurality of sub-spectrum management devices, from interferencesuffered by a secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum managementdevice, a portion whose area, frequency band and time overlap an area, afrequency band and a time of spectrum usage of a secondary systemmanaged by another sub-spectrum management device, and determine aresult of the excluding as interference from unknown sources suffered bythe secondary system managed by each sub-spectrum management device; andaccumulate, with respect to all the determined interference from unknownsources, times of respective interference from unknown sources in termsof an area and a frequency band, to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.
 6. Theelectronic device according to claim 5, wherein the processing circuitryis further configured to: accumulate, based on the spectrum usagestatistical information from the plurality of sub-spectrum managementdevices, for each sub-spectrum management device, a time of spectrumusage of a secondary system managed by that sub-spectrum managementdevice in terms of an area, to determine spectrum usage integrationinformation associated with the area.
 7. The electronic device accordingto claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:generate, based on the determined integration information, frequencyband recommendation information associated with an area for a secondarysystem managed by each sub-spectrum management device, as the spectrumusage guidance information.
 8. The electronic device according to claim7, wherein the frequency band recommendation information includesrecommended frequency bands arranged in order of priority.
 9. Anelectronic device, comprising: processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage statistical information, the spectrum usagestatistical information including: spectrum usage related information ofa secondary system managed by said electronic device, and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by said electronicdevice; send the acquired spectrum usage statistical information to acentral spectrum device, for the central spectrum device to generate,based on spectrum usage statistical information from at least one of theelectronic device in an offline state, spectrum usage guidanceinformation for a secondary system managed by each said electronicdevice.
 10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein theoffline state refers to a state of not communicating with the centralspectrum device in real time, and/or the interference relatedinformation of the secondary system indicates interference suffered bythe secondary system that is determined through measurement. 11.(canceled)
 12. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein thespectrum usage related information of the secondary system indicates anarea, a frequency band and a time of spectrum usage of the secondarysystem, and the interference related information of the secondary systemindicates an area, a frequency band and a time of interference sufferedby the secondary system, wherein the spectrum usage related informationof the secondary system includes a geographic location, a coverage, aswell as a time and a frequency band of spectrum usage of a base stationof the secondary system.
 13. The electronic device according to claim 9,wherein the processing circuitry is configured to periodically oraperiodically send the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationto the central spectrum device.
 14. The electronic device according toclaim 9, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured todetermine spectrum usage of the secondary system managed by theelectronic device with reference to the spectrum usage guidanceinformation generated by the central spectrum device.
 15. (canceled) 16.An electronic device, comprising: processing circuitry configured to:acquire spectrum usage statistical information of a secondary systemmanaged by the electronic device, the spectrum usage statisticalinformation comprising: spectrum usage related information of thesecondary system managed by the electronic device, and interferencerelated information of the secondary system managed by the electronicdevice; receive spectrum usage statistical information from anotherelectronic device, wherein at least one of the another electronic deviceis in an offline state; and generate, based on the acquired spectrumusage statistical information and the received spectrum usagestatistical information, spectrum usage guidance information for thesecondary system managed by the electronic device.
 17. The electronicdevice according to claim 16, wherein the offline state is a state of noreal-time communication between electronic devices, and/or theinterference related information of the secondary system indicatesinterference suffered by the secondary system that is determined throughmeasurement.
 18. (canceled)
 19. The electronic device according to claim16, wherein the spectrum usage related information of the secondarysystem indicates an area, a frequency band and a time of spectrum usageof the secondary system, and the interference related information of thesecondary system indicates an area, a frequency band and a time ofinterference suffered by the secondary system, wherein the spectrumusage related information of the secondary system includes a geographiclocation, a coverage, as well as a time and a frequency band of spectrumusage of a base station of the secondary system.
 20. The electronicdevice according to claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: exclude, based on the acquired spectrum usagestatistical information and the received spectrum usage statisticalinformation, from interference suffered by a secondary system managed byeach of the electronic device, a portion whose area, frequency band andtime overlap an area, a frequency band and a time of spectrum usage of asecondary system managed by another electronic device, and determine aresult of the excluding as interference from unknown sources suffered bythe secondary system managed by each electronic device; and accumulate,with respect to all the determined interference from unknown sources,times of respective interference from unknown sources in terms of anarea and a frequency band, to determine interference integrationinformation associated with the area and the frequency band.
 21. Theelectronic device according to claim 20, wherein the processingcircuitry is further configured to: accumulate, based on the acquiredspectrum usage statistical information and the received spectrum usagestatistical information, for each electronic device, a time of spectrumusage of a secondary system managed by that electronic device in termsof an area, to determine spectrum usage integration informationassociated with the area.
 22. The electronic device according to claim20, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: generate,based on the determined integration information, frequency bandrecommendation information associated with an area for a secondarysystem managed by the electronic device, as the spectrum usage guidanceinformation.
 23. The electronic device according to claim 22, whereinthe frequency band recommendation information includes recommendedfrequency bands arranged in order of priority.
 24. The electronic deviceaccording to claim 16, wherein the processing circuitry is configuredto: periodically or aperiodically receive spectrum usage statisticalinformation from the another electronic device, periodically oraperiodically send the acquired spectrum usage statistical informationof the secondary system managed by the electronic device to the anotherelectronic device, exchange synchronization period information with theanother electronic device, and/or determine spectrum usage of asecondary system managed by the electronic device with reference to thegenerated spectrum usage guidance information. 25.-32. (canceled)